The present invention is directed to a birefringent optical waveguide structure which is buried in a cladding layer of a second glass and to a method for manufacturing the waveguide structure.
Passive optical components that split the signal into orthogonally polarized parts are needed for coherent optical heterodyne reception independently of the polarization of the incoming signal. Such components can be executed with the means of integrated optics when adequately birefringent, integrated optical waveguides or structures of such waveguides can be manufactured with which the division of arbitrarily polarized light into two mutually orthogonally polarized components can be carried out.